#oc: dorgene haragin

[paintedscales]

AuRaugust 2024 :: Day One :: New Dawn

"You took up the brush with no hesitation and covered my scales in ink of black. You told me that if I thought my scales would have been easy enough to identify myself with, then I should have simply painted them. So I did after you had. Given everything else that could have been used to describe me, I felt...relief when people simply passed me by, giving me no more than a simple glance before carrying on with their day. This...'new me' made me as invisible as I wanted to feel most days..."

[paintedscales]

AuRaugust 2024 :: Day Two :: Maritime

"Life out at sea was far different from anything I had been used to out on the Steppe, but I'm glad I got to experience it. Even if the bread was stale and the most of what you had to sup upon was mead or ale from the Far West, I'm glad that I had a friend to make it that much easier for me to enjoy what I could."

[paintedscales]

FFXIV Write 2024 :: Day Three

Prompt: Tempest Characters: Nomin tal Kheeriin, Dorgene Haragin Word Count: 391

Master List

Grey blanketed the skies above, and Nomin found herself furrowing her brow as she stared up at it. Hints of green peeked out between some of the breaks, cracks of emerald seeping through. This was far from good…

Nomin had only ever seen the sky reflect such a green once before in her life, and the gales it brought on with the storm that hit that summer left destruction in its wake. She thought about Dorgene’s story of her tribe…of their losses due to the tempestuous dance between sky and sea. Dread sunk down into the core of her stomach, and it was not so much for her sake.

Looking behind her, Nomin saw how the other Haragin were working to secure their goods with what rope they had. Anything to keep what was not nailed nor bolted to the ground from sliding around.

The dread Nomin felt was for them. Or…perhaps…she was feeling their dread?

Breathing in, Nomin went to find Dorgene. Her bow would avail her naught -- for what would she do with it? Pierce the heavens with a stone-tipped arrow to cease the rains? A foolish thought. No, she needed someone who could tell her what to do, what to expect, and how to help.

Dorgene stood at the helm as the tribe's navigator and khatun, an uncharacteristically grave expression on her face as she kept her hands gripped around the pegs of the wheel. Nomin approached her, however, a last cursory look being made toward the sky as she did. Once she reached Dorgene, Nomin asked, “What can I do to help?”

“You’re an archer, right?”

Dorgene’s question was an odd one to Nomin. What did being an archer have to do with helping?

“... Yes.”

“Help my people raise the sails. The last thing we want when that storm hits is for its winds to blow us off course and away from the rest of our fleet,” Dorgene instructed, giving a brief explanation to paint a broader picture as to the why. “When you’re done with that, if there is anything loose left either on deck or below, get it secured.”

“It shall be done,” Nomin said, hurrying off to do those things asked of her. Perhaps after the storm had passed, Nomin could ask what being an archer had to do with helping secure the ship.

[paintedscales]

FFXIV Write 2024 :: Day Two

Prompt: Horizon Characters: Nomin tal Kheeriin, Dorgene Haragin Word Count: 729 Warnings: Mentions of death

Master List

The fried bread that Nomin had was a day old and a combination of being slightly crispy and stale around the edges while unsatisfyingly floppy in the middle. It certainly did not serve as the best breakfast one could ask for, but she supposed that this was something she was simply going to have to get used to in order to sail the seas tolerably. And that was going to have to be a priority if this was going to be her life for the time being.

“Just look at that endless horizon…!” Drogene jogged across the deck of the ship past Nomin, a smile growing on her face. Leaning at the ship’s railing in a near-anxiety-inducing way, feet lifting off the ground. She was clearly enjoying herself. “I never get tired of looking at it during days like this.”

Nomin turned her gaze out upon the open sea. The Haragin had been sailing for a while, and land had disappeared from view since late the day prior. Bright blue skies met the azure seas in a setting that Nomin never really imagined being surrounded by. It was a combination of being both bleak and beautiful at the same time, and it was that slight obstacle that prevented Nomin from seeing what Dorgene saw.

Dorgene’s feet returned to the ship’s deck, and she looked over at Nomin. “What do you think? This is your first true experience out at sea, isn’t it?”

Nomin stopped mid-chew on her piece of bread and glanced from Dorgene back out toward the horizon. Swallowing, she hummed in thought. “I…don’t really know? It doesn’t seem too exciting to me. But…maybe you can tell me why you like it?”

At that moment, Dorgene’s brow went up as she chuckled lightly. “Fair skies, fair seas…it’s a beautiful day. Though, living on the land as long as you have, you have probably taken it for granted in a way. For if the skies are angry and tumultuous, then so too becomes the sea. To appreciate the beauty of the calm horizon is to appreciate the air we breathe and the life we still live.”

‘The life we still live…’ Nomin thought to herself, her brow forming a small furrow as she considered Dorgene’s perspective. “... How…dangerous is it to sail?”

Dorgene’s expression fell, a sad smile lingering on her lips as she folded her arms over the ship’s railing. She stared down into the deep blue waters. “You know how we have three ships?”

“I do.”

“It used to be a small fleet… When I was but a toddler, maybe three or four summers of age, I remember there being much more. Eight. My parents told me there used to be even more,” Dorgene began, recalling her past and the stories she had been told over time. “Only when I was about ten and three summers was I allowed to start sailing with the rest of the tribe. That was my first real taste of the sea… I loved it from the moment we took off from the bay.”

A sigh left Dorgene as she looked back up at the distant horizon.

“The first terrible storm I ever experienced was when I was ten and five summers -- two years later. The khan urged me to stay safe in the ship’s cabin, to hold onto something sturdy when I did.” Dorgene’s tail had even stayed slack behind her as she recounted her tale. “When the storm finally passed, we lost two of our ships… At least thirty or forty of our tribespeople. All because of a storm -- because of how angrily the seas and the skies danced with one another that they cared not who they punished.”

To think that a storm could do that. Dorgene was right -- perhaps Nomin had taken her life upon the Steppe for granted. Though casualties and even fatalities from storms were not unheard of, they never took out entire swaths of members of the tribes she knew.

“...Why… Why continue to sail the seas knowing the dangers?” Nomin asked.

“I love the open waters. I love seeing new horizons. New people. New foods. New things to discover.” Dorgene’s smile returned, though the sad look behind her eyes remained. “Perhaps, one day, I shall also be brought into the sea’s embrace. But until then, this ship is my home, my tribe is my family.